Fergie's Tech Blog

How Data Was Gathered For New Iraq Casualty Study

Dr. Kim Mulvihill, M.D., writes on CBS5.com:

Researchers from the John's Hopkins School of Public Health used what could be called a "Door-to-door approach" to measure death during war. They studied "excess" deaths. In other words, how many people died above and beyond what is expected in a country without conflict.

"In short, it was a very brave attempt to do good science," said Dr. Nicholas Jewell, a professor of Biostatics at U.C. Berkeley.

Jewell reviewed the controversial new study which estimates as many as 650,000 Iraqi civilians died as a consequency of living in a war-torn country.

"650,000 deaths over a three year period in excess is like having a September 11th tragedy once a week like clockwork over three years," Jewell said. "That gives you a scale of how many deaths are being claimed in this estimate."

The figure is 20 times the number President Bush cited last December.

posted by Fergie @ 10/11/2006 06:08:00 PM